A Few Days Off

After another long and tiring tax deadline, I was so excited to come home on Monday night to find my boys had been shopping for me:  beautiful flowers and margarita ingredients! 

 I enjoyed one of my favorite "15th" evenings while sipping a single margarita, coloring with Will, and going to bed at 10 p.m..   On Tuesday, I slept almost the entire day.  I got up and took Will to school, napped until lunch time, then napped until 3 p.m.  We both went to pick up Will from school and then made a family trip to The Container Store (our first visit!) for shoe organizers.  J. Alexander's was across the parking lot so we made our first visit there as well.  I know it's a favorite of several KC friends, so I was excited to go.  Mostly I just wanted a baked potato!  It didn't disappoint. 

 Today I let Will stay home from school.  He had been coughing throughout the night - waking us up, so I assumed waking himself us as well - so I let him sleep until he woke up at 8:30.  At that point I figured it wasn't worth taking him, so I told him he could stay home and rest.  That lasted about 10 minutes until he said he was feeling all better and ready to play!  He helped me assemble the shoe organizers and we ran errands and went to the park and the children's museum. 

 He played soccer while I had to join a conference call for a new program I am doing this fall at work.  I skipped the webcast, but figured I could listen in for half an hour.  I did have to put the phone down for a few minutes to bandage an elbow.  It wasn't unsupervised jungle gym play.  Nope, he fell off the bench when sat down to take off his shoes so he could get back in the sandbox! 

We had a fun day, and since I was home I got to go along to his swimming lesson tonight. 
This was his second lesson (the real second lesson got cancelled last week due to a "bathroom mishap), and he was a little uncooperative to start.  Luckily he warmed up and started participating after a few minutes.  The other two kids in his class are much better swimmers, so I hope some of their positive peer pressure helps.  

I'm looking forward to another day tomorrow of crossing things off my To Do List. 

Play Doh

Will's swimming lessons on Wednesday were cancelled after a "bathroom mishap" in an earlier class caused the pool to close for the remainder of the day.   The guys used their extra time after school/work to run to Target.  Will told Jason he would like to buy a "Frosting Fun Bakery playset."  He saw it demonstrated on the YouTube videos he likes to watch (blucollector is his favorite).  Well, sure enough, such a thing exists!  And Will's daddy was willing to buy it for him!

 

When Will woke me up on Thursday morning, he peeked his head over my bed and said, "Can I go downstairs and play with my bakery playset?"  Looks like Christmas came early at our house this year!

 

In this picture Will is modeling his new 5T pajamas from Aunt Amy and his cousins.   They sure do fit better than those old 3Ts!  Thanks guys!

Chicago Electric Boat Co.

For his birthday Ryan received a boat rental from Chicago Electric Boat Company for a party of 10.  He scheduled the cruise for last night and graciously invited Jason, Will and me along for the boat cruise and dinner on board. It was a beautiful evening, and not too hot as we were moving.  We were sticking to the vinyl boat seats though!  We boarded not too far from my office, so I just walked over to meet the group, including my two driving in from the suburbs. 

Our ride for the evening

 Our captain

 Our curious preschooler checking out debris in the North Branch of the river

 Ryan brought a delicious selection of gourmet sandwiches, wine, fruit and chocolates for dinner.  Will loved the chocolate covered almonds and the caramels.  He just picked at his pretty sandwich, of course.

 Shields family after Will's outfit change:  we brought his Puddle Jumper (a Coast Guard approved floation device!) in case the life jacket on board didn't fit.  It fit but he didn't like it.  He also borrowed Ryan's hat.

 Moving north to south on the North Branch

 We saw several instances of transportation overload.  In the same view we could see boat, bike, cars, subway train and commuter train!  Too bad a plane wasn't overhead!  In this picture an El train is crossing the bridge.  The tall black building in the back is the Willis (Sears) Tower.

 At the end of the night, Will asked if he could drive the boat. He took his responsibility very seriously.  Here he's helping Ryan's friend, Wade, captain the vessel.  Ryan and Emilie also took turns driving, but I just enjoyed sitting and watching!

Planes

We had our first family outing to the movie theatre on Saturday night to see Disney's Planes.  The movie was good, and Will did a pretty good job, too.  We made it the entire movie, although Will was pretty tired so asked to leave a few times.  Luckily he always used his quiet voice, and he got a second wind once we walked out to the snack bar for a giant bag of fruit snacks.    We had been swimming in the morning, and he had a bouncy house birthday party, so I'm not surprised that he was worn out! 

Diving Board

We unintentionally had the best day ever!  I didn't know until late Saturday night that I wouldn't need to work on Sunday, so we had no plans.   Will, Ryan and I were out picking vegetables in our garden on Sunday morning and were chatting with our neighbor, Lori, who said she was on the way to the subdivision pool.  She has told us numerous times that we were welcome to her guest passes, so I spontaneously asked if we could have some for that day.  Ryan was on his way back to the city for a barbecue, so just the three of went.  Will rode his bike and we walked.  It was our first time there, and Will's first time seeing diving boards.  He just had to jump!   The lifeguard and pool manager said he could go with his Puddle Jumper on as long as he could swim to the ladder and get out himself (i.e. we couldn't "catch" him).  He did!  I think he went about 8 times over the course of our 2 hours there.  Ironically, Lori was leaving just as we got there, so she didn't see the jumping, but Vanessa our neighbor on the other side was there with her husband and adult kids, so she was the one to take these pictures since I didn't take my phone.

Before we left for the pool, Will and Rachel were playing.  A very patient Rachel not only allowed Will to put his safety googgles from his tool box set on her but then posed for a photo.  Multiple dog treats, little boy giggles, and hugs were her reward.

After a few hours in the sun and playing in the pool, we went home and put on our pajamas (at 3 p.m.) and relaxed the rest of the day.  After dinner we went to Baskin Robbins to get the ice cream of the month (Oreos with salted caramel and peanuts) that we saw advertised.   We tried the one closest to our house but they were out of both the special AND regular Oreo ice cream.  We went to one a few miles away and they were out of the special but had regular Oreo ice cream.  Whew!  I wasn't sure we wanted to try a third or fourth store! 

Multi-tasking

This boy is so clever.   We were watching TV last night but he wanted to play with his Play Doh, too, so he just nicely asked if I could move his table in front of the TV.  Well, why not?  Everybody's happy! 

New York

Work brought me to New York again this week, and for once I actually had some tourist time built into my schedule!  My friend Emilie met me at my hotel in Midtown where we picked up Citibikes and took out for the west side.  We have "rent-a-bike" in Chicago, too, (Divvy bikes) but I've never used them.  This was a fun and easy way to get around the city -- especially on the streets with bike lanes!

We parked our bikes in Chelsea and walked along the High Line: a mile long walking path along a former rail line that serviced the warehouses along the river.  (www.thehighline.org) The foilage is just growing up between the rail and ties.  I think in this picture I was trying to get a picture of what looked like blueberries.

We strolled along the path and took some cool pictures.  With my back to the river, I could see the Empire State Building.   We also stopped for a snack of "shave ice."  There was a giant block of ice and the barista (for lack of a better word) took what looked like a woodworking tool and shaved off pieces to make our treats.  I got Peach Basil and Emilie got Yellow Plum.

 Check out that sunset!  We were up there from around 7-9 so we got to see lots of beautiful views, including this one looking over to New Jersey.  We had dinner at a "boat bar" called the Frying Pan.  A really fun night out in the city!

On a sad note, I figured out the reason for all the emergency vehicles and hovering helicopter when I went to my meeting on Tuesday at 30 Rock.  (I'm so used to the noise of the city that it didn't really faze me to see all of those things as I walked by. . . .)  A cab jumped a curb and ran into a British tourist which took her leg.   A horrible result from road rage apparently.   

Bike

In case you've noticed, most of my pictures these days are of Will's back.  That's what life is like with a four-year-old:  always running to keep up!  It's also just fun for me to stand back and watch him experience the world.  I took this picture right before he said, "Hey, watch this trick!" and he took his feet off the pedals and careened down the hill.  At the end of the hill is the school playground and bike rack where he dutifully parked his little bike and stored his helmet.  He's really excited about riding his bike to kindergarten next year (a full year from now). 

Yesterday was the first day that I saw Will ride his Lightning McQueen bike with the same vigor and confidence (i.e. flat out crazy fast) that he used to ride his tricycle.  He fell off multiple time when he steered into the grass, but he didn't whine.  He just got back up and jumped on again. 

At the playground we did his favorite super-high, super-fast on the baby swings while having a wonderful conversation about all sorts of things.  Then we swang on the big kid swings.  He prefers to launch himself on his stomach and then drag his feet through the mulch.  I did get him to sit on his bottom for a few minutes and attempt regular swinging.  But he didn't love it since I wouldn't push him much, and I certainly wasn't going to push him super-high or super-fast and have him fall off. 

We went back to the school later in the evening when Will's new best neighbor buddy, Dylan, went.  Dylan took his sand toys so they mostly did that while we moms chatted.  It's going to be fun to have another family with boys in the neighborhood. 

Zoo Break

We took advantage of the beautiful weather today to make a quick trip to the zoo.  Will chose to go to Tropic World ("the monkeys") first.  However, he was distracted by the dinosaur at the fountain on our way there.  I knew he hadn't forgotten it was there, because we were talking about it yesterday.  We still haven't spent the money to do the Dino Alive exhibit.  I'll have to see how much longer it's there.  He was also sure to point out the "giant geyser" in the water.  Since our stay at Wilderness Lodge he has started calling big fountains geysers. 

The gorillas (like most of the animals) were trying to take naps.  We had a good view of this one stretched out on a limb.   The other little monkeys in this exhibit were fun to watch as they were busy grooming each other.  Since we had brushed Rachel right before leaving the house this morning it was a good comparison.  (Side note:  Will thinks unloading the dishwasher, feeding Rachel, and brushing Rachel are all great fun!  Let's hope this lasts for a few years so I don't have to start a chore chart!)

After Tropic World, we worked our way over the playground/picnic table area for a snack/light lunch that we packed.  First we stopped to see the bison roaming. 

Snacks and playtime, a trip through the Great Bear Wilderness where the polar bears were enjoying their pool, and then finally to his favorite giraffes.  I was shocked that he chose monkeys for our first stop today.  It is usually always the giraffes.  They have another new baby, but we really enjoyed watching this adult bend down for a drink of water. 

Another stop for ice cream and to finish lunch and then it was time to head home.  The zoo was warming up by then, and I needed to get to work.  A fun morning with the guys!